Nepal registered a two-wicket win against Namibia in the first match of the Triangular Series of the ICC World Cup League 2 at TU cricket ground in Kirtipur on Tuesday.

Opting to bowl first, Nepal bowled out the visitors to 285 runs in the designated 50 overs.

For the visitors, Michaelvan Lingen scored an impressive 133 runs off 137 balls followed by 56 runs off 79 balls by skipper Gerhard Erasmus.

Similarly, Zane Green contributed 34 runs, Karl Birkenstock and Jan Frylinck scored 13 each, and Ruben Trumpelmann put 11 runs on the scoreboard for Namibia.

Nepal’s medium pacer Karan KC and Sandeep Lamichhane shone with the ball. KC took five wickets in his 10-over spell while Lamichhane bagged three wickets. Sompal Kami and Kushal Malla claimed a wicket each.

In response, Nepal chased the target in 47.4 overs losing eight wickets.

Opener Kushal Bhurtel smashed 115 runs off 113 balls to give the much needed respite to the Nepali team. Skipper Rohit Paudel also put 72 runs off 76 balls before being caught in 33.1 overs.

With the century, Bhurtel became only the third Nepali cricketer, and the first Nepali opener, to score a century in One-Day International (ODI) as well as T-20 International. This also marks Bhurtel’s first century in the format for Nepal.

Bhurtel had scored an unbeaten 104 runs against the Philippines in the T20 World Cup Qualifiers in Oman last year.

Before Bhurtel, Former National Cricket Team Captain Paras Khadka and Dipendra Singh Airee were the only Nepali cricketers to achieve the feat.

Nepal is playing the triangular series with the mission of retaining its One-Day International (ODI) status.

For Namibia, Trumpelmann and Jan Nicol Loftie-Eaton took 3 wickets each while Bernard Scholtz and Tangeni Lungameni claimed 1 wicket each.